Venom Nightmare
by Sunshine Eteranal
Summary: When Natasha first began to have memory bursts, everyone thought she was joking. But when she collapses and Steve and Tony find a bomb intertwined to her body, they lose all trust. The environment is poisoning everybody. Someone is serial bombing all in the tower, and everyone's convinced it's an Avenger. T for some language and possible dark themes.
1. Chapter 1

"I'm pregnant!" Natasha declared, strutting into the kitchen of Avengers Tower.

Tony gagged on the coffee he was drinking and coughed up. "W-what?" He stuttered, fumbling around for a towel.

Bruce dropped his novel into his lap and lowered his reading glasses. "Excuse me?"

Clint didn't seem affected by this, and Thor seemed quizzical at most.

Steve, however, threw down his sketchbook and tossed the pencil behind him, marching up to meet her. "What the hell are you talking about?" He didn't see any sign of a joke in her eyes. She had pride in them, yes, secrets, yes, but no humor.

"You got new highlights." Clint noticed, gesturing to Natasha's hair.

She smiled in response, then slid down into a seat by Tony, tossing him a rag. "I. Became. President." She replied, tossing her hair back.

Thor tilted his head, taking the last two seats at the table for himself and leaving Steve to sit on the counter beside them. "I do not understand. You said you were-"

"Shot! I- I got shot..." Sorrow swallowed Natasha's playful expression, and she gripped her hip-bone and shouted in pain.

Steve scowled, seeming to catch on, and placed his hand on her shoulder from behind her. "Nat, are you feeling okay? That was ages ag-"

"Help." She turned and looked Steve in the eyes, clenching his arm tightly, and mouthing three words before releasing her grip and collapsing on the floor.

"Natasha!" Steve shouted and lifted her up into his arms, shooting off the counter and sprinting into a nearby elevator. "JARVIS, we need to get to the infirmary, she-"

His eyes widened with horror as he began to see her belt smoke, ripping it off her jumpsuit and zipping down to the area where the burning was. His breathing started faltering, and the feeling he had was almost familiar. He had asthma attacks pre-serum, but this was worse. He had stomach ulcers pre-serum, but this was worse. He had scarlet fever pre-serum, but this was terrifying. This was the worst pain he'd ever felt. Worse than the needles and metal and steam during his injection.

Natasha's body was burning, steaming, with a large circular contraption fixed into the center of her chest. Like a bomb. Wires intertwined with her skin and muscles and seemed to professionally fit into her body. "TONY!" He voiced at the top of his lungs, holding the elevator open with his elbow as he hopelessly grasped her shape, desperately wanting her to hang on.

Tony stopped in the doorway, terror destroying any hope he could give to anyone. Despite the precise intertwining of the bomb, it was deathly familiar, and Tony knew exactly where he had seen this before.

"JARVIS, activate safety protocol Afghanistan Nightmare immediately. Put the tower on lock-down. And get us to floor 45." His voice was grave, aggression teasing the ends of his words.

"Yes, sir." The elevator closed and Steve lifted Natasha up to her feet. "Anthony?" He used Tony's full name, trying to sound understanding of the situation.

He got no reaction.

"Tony, what's happening to her?"

The scientist masked his remorse and turned to Steve, looking down sorrowfully at the contraption flickering inside her chest. "Something terrible."

"You've seen it before?"

A slight, terrified nod.

Steve brushed back a lock of red hair mournfully. "Where?"

Tony swallowed, his heart drumming in his ears as he replied, "In my chest."

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><p><em><strong>Well that was long. Kind of. The word count is short, but it felt long. Anyyhow, if you liked this a little, let me know. *points below* Dooo it.<strong>_


	2. Chapter 2

Clint paced behind the locked doors, regretting not following Steve and Tony. They ran off without warning and had locked themselves in the infirmary, taking Natasha with them.

Bruce told them he was going himself from the environment until there was less tension, probably for the best.

It had been six hours without so much as a 'hello' from Jarvis, which was enough to stress out any human being.

Thor sat down in the nearest chair, deciding to get comfortable in the waiting room. "My friend, I am certain she is alright." He tried to sound reassuring, placing a hand on Clint's chest.

"Great. Because you know her far better than I do." Clint snapped in reply as he shoved the god's arm away.

"He's being nice, Clint." Steve smiled as he pushed open the door, resulting in Clint sprinting inside, trying to reach Natasha.

Tony looked up from his work and briefly made eye contact, then resumed without a word, earning him a disapproving look from Steve and a vicious glare from Clint.

"Don't look at me like that." Tony responded without glancing up, then sighing as he properly addressed them. "JARVIS is running a scan, but I'm pretty sure of the basics. She has-"

Tony's statement was interrupted by Clint grabbing the collar of his shirt and pinning him up against the wall. "What the hell happened back there?" Clint growled aggressively.

Tony raised his arms defensively and tried to push the archer off of him. "Natasha would have died if it weren't for me. She-"

"She was dying? I waited out there for six freaking hours and you didn't say a word."

Clint tightened his grip and raised his fist murderously before Steve shouted at them to knock it off and broke Clint's grip.

"We're all stressed out, alright? Let's clear things up. Tony didn't have anything to do with what happened. As terrible as he is at explaining things, he's got Natasha on life support, and he is the reason she's still alive." Steve explained as calmly as he could.

"She's probably fallen into a coma, but she's alive." Tony muttered, then cleared his throat. "She has a bomb in her chest, wired into every one of her vital organs. I recognize the technology, but it's been upgraded a lot since my experience. Before you interrupted me, I was trying to find the safest surgery to get the bomb removed."

Clint swallowed, taking in Tony's words. Natasha was alive. She was hooked up to a bomb. He thought of his previous experience with bombs and his stomach turned. "How much longer?" He asked, glancing at Tony's work.

No reply.

"How much lo-"

"Three days, 5 hours, 37 minutes, and 52 seconds." Bruce stepped out of a door Clint thought belonged to a closet, and corrected one of Tony's equations. "You forgot to round."

Steve opened his mouth to say something but instead began coughing uncontrollably as blood splecks flew put of his mouth. "I'm okay." He whispered hoarsely, attempting to stand up but instead gripping Tony's desk for balance and vomiting on the floor.

"Bruce, Tony..." Clint began backing away cautiously, then got a look at his arms, which had started swelling and producing sores across his body. "What's going on?"

Steve's skin began turning red as he shouted in agony, collapsing to the floor.

"He's not breathing." Bruce caught the captain's body, but the panic and nerves were straining his mind. He was willing himself to hold it together.

Clint's eyes widened in horror as he felt the burning, sore skin on his face. "Help." He looked at Tony, then moaned as he crashed to the ground.

"Hang in there, Clint." Tony tried to remain calm for Bruce's sake, but he was mentally flipping out as he slid on gloves and lifted Clint to a hospital bed.

Bruce grunted in response, sweating as he managed to drag Steve to the edge of a bed, then pushing him up the rest of the way.

"I need to get out of here, before-" Bruce jumped back as the door slammed open.

Thor stumbled backwards into the room, unable to speak as his skin turned a sickly green and his blonde hair began falling out.

"Thor!" Tony sprinted over, trying to help his friend keep balance. "Bruce, get out!" He strained under the weight.

No response as Thor fell on top of Tony, and Bruce let go, violently and rapidly hulking out.

But he didn't finish the transformation; his skin had barely changed color and his clothing was only partly ripped.

The left side of his body had grown by about 40%, the right side only half that.

He was shaking in anger, his mind on overload. He roared in an attempt to finish the growth, but it resulted in the world fading to black.

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><p><em><strong>I meant for this to be published yesterday, but better late than never. <strong>_

_**Thanks so much for all the support you guys are giving, I didn't expect more than one review on this, and the fact that it got more is amazing. The next chapter will be out soon**_

_**~Shine on!**_


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